The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged Nigeria to strengthen its health systems to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare services, regardless of people’s location, gender or social circumstances.

WHO made this call during a five-day training event held in Abuja from November 2 to 6. The event involved the Federal Ministry of Health, state ministries of health and other health and development partners.

The organisation said that to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health programmes must identify and remove obstacles that prevent people from accessing essential health services.

The event focused on translating commitments to gender equality, health equity and human rights into action in health programmes.

According to WHO, participants learned to identify groups that miss out on health services, understand why they cannot access care and use data to monitor health inequalities.

The training also covered ways to integrate gender, equity and human rights into health programme planning, budgeting, implementation, communication and monitoring.

Speaking at the event, WHO Representative in Nigeria, Pavel Ursu, said that health programmes often fail to identify people who are left out of services and the barriers that prevent them from accessing care.

He stressed that tackling gender inequality, promoting health equity and upholding human rights were key to achieving Universal Health Coverage, strengthening health security and building people-centred health systems.

Also speaking, the Director of the Family Health Department at the Federal Ministry of Health, Ahmad Ozi, said the government wanted to go beyond policy statements and ensure that equity considerations shaped the planning, implementation and monitoring of health programmes.

The event brought together 181 participants, comprising 101 in-person attendees and 80 virtual participants, from government institutions, United Nations agencies, development partners and civil society organisations.

Participants are also developing institutional and programme action plans to apply the knowledge gained during the training.

WHO said stronger health programmes must recognise groups that face barriers to care and introduce measures that enable everyone to access quality health services.